“Sam Shepard was a prolific storyteller who created provocative, thoughtful, and exciting work for Broadway, Off-Broadway, and film,” said Broadway League President Charlotte St. Martin in a statement. “His original voice was a definite draw for audiences and had an undeniable influence on other artists. He will be greatly missed. Our thoughts are with his family, friends, and colleagues.”

Though the majority of Shepard’s oeuvre premiered Off-Broadway (he was a perennial Obie Award recipient), a number of his plays would go on to play Broadway years after being written. Buried Child, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1979, played the Brooks Atkinson Theatre in 1996. Broadway productions of True West and—most recently—Fool for Love followed.